No Harrison! Shonda Rhimes Dishes on Upcoming 'Scandal' Season

Gladiators everywhere are waiting anxiously for the return of Olivia Pope & Associates and in true Scandal fashion, Shonda Rhimes has delivered some juicy tidbits about the upcoming season.

At the end of last season we all wondered what actually happened to Harrison. Did he die? Was he going to miraculously wiggle his way out of a tight situation? Rhimes tells Hollywood Reporter that Harrison's absence "will be explained definitively."

"What you think happened to his character happened to his character," she said.

Rhimes adds that Harrison's team will handle the death in different ways. "It will be very devastating for Abby in a surprising way. You'll see how she's coping with it in a very different way than you would expect."

The new season will also get back to the main core characters. "It feels like the universe is getting smaller again. As we're telling stories, the stories really do seem to be more focused on our core people," explained Rhimes. "Now that we have the ability to use Kerry the way we need to use her, it means we get to bring everything back to our core in a way that we had in season two and one.

So what will happen to Huck's re-discovered family? Rhimes said that the character, played by Guillermo Diaz, has already let go of the idea of a family but we could be seeing more of his wife, played by Jasika Nicole. "We really want to tell that story in a very specific way. I don't want to say more because it will give it away."

The new season of Scandal premieres September 25 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.